Thailand

Quick hello from Bangkok! (Carly), Tue 03/10/2006 3:31 PM

Hi Mum and Clare

emailing you together as ntl is playing up and the email I just sent to Clare failed! Very annoying! Clare - well done on your weight and congrats on the car, we are very jealous and Adam can't wait to take a ride in it! Tell Megan we are very proud of her, we used to get merit slips at school but not gold ones so she must be doing very well!

Tell Ryan long division is hard but he will get it (with a good explanation - which i can try in Feb at worst case!)! Hannah found it very hard but she pretty much got there in the end, that means that when he gets it it will be useful right up to GCSE! Adam says he still can't do it but don't tell Ryan that.

Bangkok is a strange city, but the people are very helpful and friendly! On our way from the airport (which is new so our directions were wrong!) I was struggling up the stairs of a bus (Adam steams on ahead without me!) and a Thai man jumped out of his seat took hold of my bag in one hand and my wrist in the other and hauled me onto the bus! Amazing I've never known anything like it! People come up to us in the street (cos we stick out) and offer info on the places in Bangkok and Thailand and a lady today even negotiated a tuk-tuk for us so we didn't get ripped off! Not that it matters cos the ripping us off is doubling the price which is around 30p! They are motorised rickshaws which go very fast but seem safe enough! They make for an exhilarating ride anyway!

I'm proud of Adam as he has just found us two top hostels in Vietnam and is writing down the places to avoid in Thailand so that we can chose a place for the last week! Booked flights to Vietnam today - so that's all done now!

Speak soon!

Love Carly xxxxxxxxx

Coup news!!!! (Carly & Adam), Tue 03/10/2006 8:21 PM

Hey Mum, Dad and Scott

Just got ur email today, haven't been able to check it since Russia. We are in Bangkok but don't worry everything is fine. We are staying some way outside the centre, there are very few tourists out here, mostly Thai people. We are being very careful, went into the centre today and near the Grand Palace, there were no soldiers there and no big crowds. We were actually interviewed by a group of schoolchildren asking us what we think of Thailand.

The people here are so friendly it is hard to believe. We got on the bus from the airport and a guy actually jumped out of his seat and lifted Carly's bag on for her. Every time we stop to look at the map someone asks if we are lost and points us the right way. Carly was moaning that we keep getting ripped off as the taxi drivers charge foreigners more but today we took a 20 min cab ride for under 2 pounds!! We were really worried that we got ripped off this afternoon. We wanted a boat ride along the river to see all the main sites and at the pier a guy led us to a tour office. The guide book says to get the normal river bus as u can see everything from there but this woman started telling us about the tour. She said 1200 baht each (about 18 quid) and i said no thanks and started to walk off. She followed and lowered the price, I remembered the Chilean from Moscow told me always barter and only pay half because they raise the price for foreigners. I stuck to my guns and got it down to 1200 baht for both of us. Anyway we go to get on the boat and the woman stops us and tells us to wait on the pier. The crowded boat leaves and she says "here is ur boat" and along comes our personal tour boat! We hired the whole boat for 9 pounds each!

The city is amazing, although it is extremely hot which Carly doesn't like. It is so busy here u can tell there are 10 million people. Haven't seen much of the sights yet although we saw them from the river this afternoon, the outside of the palace is unbelievable, can't wait to get inside and take some pictures, forget everything u have seen in the movies of oriental art and architecture its even better in real life! We went to a shrine today, a very small outdoor temple in which Thai Buddhists (practically everyone here) go to pray. There were some traditional dancers there and it is surrounded by skyscrapers. Its pretty cool that something so small can survive amongst all the enormous modern buildings.

We spent a load of money on flights to Vietnam (about 250 pounds). That is for the flight from Bangkok to Hanoi, Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and Ho Chi Minh back to Bangkok. It seems pretty expensive but we went to a few places and they couldn't do what we wanted so we went to this Tourist Info place and they booked it all for us. The guy also tried to sell us a week at the beach when we return to Thailand after Vietnam but it was too expensive so we r gonna try to organise it ourselves. Everyone says the islands are the place to go and u can rent a beach bungalow very cheap but the ones he offered were about 20 quid a night.

Please transfer some more money to my account as I think the Vietnam tickets will deplete it a lot.

U will not believe this but I have had less bug bites here than in St Petersburg! The room is pretty gd so they don't get in and we have been using the bug spray whenever we go out. Hopefully this luck will continue.

We are gonna look for some hostels in Vietnam in a min and hopefully book something in each city. As for the week when we return to Thailand we are not sure yet but will let u know as soon as we decide. Don't worry i have no intention of getting blown up or shot so we are not going too far south, prob find a beach resort near Bangkok coz we have to fly out from here anyway to Singapore.

Speak to u soon

Adam and Carly xxx

Bangkok and Hanoi (Carly), Sun 08/10/2006 4:41 PM

Hi again people!

Its been ages and so I'm afraid I have a lot to say!!

The first problem was that Bangkok has a new airport and so the hostel's helpful directions were no use!!

Our first impression of Thai people was very good as a lady approached us smiling and asking if we needed information. She put us on a free shuttle bus to the bus station where another lady with a big thai smile (who seemed to know every bus route off by heart) told us the buses we needed to get!

After the buses we had our first ride in a tuk-tuk (motorised ricksaws) and finally arrived at the hostel! It was a good one with a cheap restaurant and a gym. The staff were really sweet especially as I had booked for a day too early (doh overnight flight must have confused me!). They suggested we go to a weekend market but we were so tired that I dont think we properly appreciated it!

Bangkok is an exciting city but all the way through the week we were changing our minds as to whether or not we liked it! Its huge, smelly (mainly because of all the outdoor food stalls), noisy and has terrible traffic! The pollution is visable in huge clouds of black smoke which lots of the buses give off!

But everything is so different from Europe! The food is great and very cheap, the people are mostly very friendly and the palaces and temples are truly amazing!

Bangkok is definitely saved by the aircon, but don't be too jealous we did have a few days of torrential rain! Not that the rain matters much as it's so hot that you dry quickly!

On our second day we went on a boat trip, which was kept expensive (though we paid half the original price as recommended by our Chilian friend) until we saw that we had a whole boat with about 30 seats to ourselves! From the boat we saw lots of poor houses and huge sky scrapers! The kids swimming in the murky brown water made us laugh as did the women in the 'floating market' who rowed over in a canoe and held onto the side of the boat until we bought a beer for our driver.......not the best idea as it was quite rough on the river but hopefully he drank it after we got out of the boat! We had no change so a man rowed over to give us some. He also had a huge Thai smile but it was completely ruined as he only had two teeth one on each side of his mouth. I have a feeling that I will never forget his face. He tried to sell us more things but I just wanted him to go away!

Because Bangkok is so crazy and it is difficult to get between the sites as the skytrain does not go near some of the main sites, it took us a long time to find our feet.

At the end of the week it felt like we had done lots but achieved very little!

But we did manage to get visas and flights for Vietnam and be measured for some suits which we will pick up when we go back. My favourite bit was the Grand Palace which is a huge complex with lots of beautiful palaces and a temple area called the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple area is surrounded by a wall with 175 panels painted with an epic Thai tale. Each gate is guarded by two large demon guardians and the shrines and temples are covered with beautiful coloured tiles in mosaic patterns, flowers or all gold. We have seen lots of beautiful churches on our travels so far but these temples really took our breath away! Inside the main temple the emerald Buddha sits high on a throne surrounded by lots of other standing Buddhas each commissioned in honour of a member of the royal family.

In Wat Po (another temple) we saw the golden reclining Buddha which was 150 feet long! We also saw some monks with a mobile phone and a walkman, strange as we thought they gave up worldly possessions! Adam got his photo taken with a monk who was smoking but unfortunately he hid the cigarette under the bench before I could take it!

The only thing I really didn't like about Bangkok is the number of con artists. They are all over the touristy parts (thankfully we stayed outside) and will say anything to get you into the tuk-tuk that conveniently pulls over to take you to some sites and shopping! Some of these want to get you in tailors but the worst ones take you to lots of jewellery shops. Luckily we managed to avoid this unpleasant fate! It does get a bit annoying though when you are walking along!

On the way to Wat Arun within 100m we were approached by four different smiling guys trying to take us to the happy Buddha and were told that "Wat Arun is closed today", "the river is too high to get to Wat Arun" and "It is the time for Buddhist prayer only". After that our response is now "we are going for a walk" when asked where we are going! In the end we did get to Wat Arun, crossing the river for a bargain 4.5p! It was amazing but completely different to the others. It was a pyramid shaped tower with steps so that you could climb half way up and walk all of the way around. It was brightly decorated with flowers, demons and monkeys.

We gradually got a bit better at bartering but its difficult when the original price they say seems cheap to you anyway! The best one was on a street market where i got a woman down from 400 to 320 and I wanted to pay 300. When I stuck to 300 she said "just baht more, happy me, happy you!" it made us both laugh and I ended up giving it to her!

Saw some Thai boxing, in ring-side seats and i enjoyed it much more than I thought I would! Though I did not like the way it makes you feel blood thirsty... it's easy to get caught up in the atmosphere and find yourself wanting them to hurt each other!

Love to all!

Carly xxx

Bangkok and my "first tour in 'Nam" (Adam), Sun 08/10/2006 5:06 PM

Hey Everyone,

It's been a while I know. We didn't find time to write anything from Bangkok, it is so hectic there its unbelievable. Overall I really enjoyed the week there. There were some low points: we spent 2 hours in a taxi because of a small misunderstanding between us and the driver combined with a ridiculous amount of traffic (the great thing about Bangkok is that it still only cost about 3 quid); we arrived on the first day with no sleep at all because we watched 4 movies on the plane there; and there are con-men everywhere trying to persuade u into a taxi so they can give u a tour of jewellery shops that pay them commission. These men stand outside every tourist attraction telling people the thing they want to see is closed but they will take them to see something else for 10 baht. The other one is they tell u they'll give u a tour of Bangkok "1 hour 10 baht." Aside from these guys we found the Thai people to be very friendly, the service everywhere is excellent and thankfully most of them speak at least a little English coz their language is pretty tricky. U can say the right word but if u pronounce it in the wrong tone of voice it means something different entirely. Thus by the end of the week i could say hello and thank you (just about right).

There aren't actually that many things to see in Bangkok but it takes so long to get between them that we filled a week easily. We saw the Grand Palace, three Buddhist Temples and the house of a Thai Silk Baron. We also did a bit of shopping which is a great experience in Bangkok. The Temples are incredible, like nothing I've ever seen before.

The one next to the Grand Palace, Wat Phra Kaew, has many small pagodas decorated in different styles; one is covered in gold mosaic and obviously stands out. There are also Thai legends painted inside most of the buildings. It houses the most important Buddha image in Thailand: the Emerald Buddha. This is also the only Buddha u r not allowed to photograph but I got a sneaky one in from outside the door.

The Palace is also magnificent. The Thais really love their King (hence the recent military coup), most of them wear yellow t-shirts with the royal emblem on them all the time. We were really confused at first when we walked around coz practically everyone is wearing a yellow shirt. Yellow is apparently the colour of the year the King was born.

The second temple we saw is called Wat Po. It is inside an enormous compound which also encloses a primary school and a traditional Thai massage school. In one of the two large temple buildings is a 150ft long gold statue of the Buddha lying down. On his massive feet are 108 symbols signifying enlightenment embossed in mother-of-pearl. To enter all of the temples you have to remove ur shoes and if sitting ur feet must point away from the Buddha because they are considered the lowest part of the body.

The last temple was Wat Arun. It is on the other side of the river and so u have to get a boat across for 3 baht (less than 5p). It is completely different from the other temples, there is no gold or mother-of-pearl but it is somehow just as amazing to look at. It has a central tower 160ft high with 4 smaller ones around it in a square. Every inch of it is covered in mosaics and statues of monkey warriors and mythical creatures.

Although we went to all these temples we didn't see many monks. The ones we did see were surprising to say the least: twice we saw monks having a sneaky cigarette and in the temple of the reclining Buddha i saw one with a camera phone taking photos and one listening to a walkman.

Very strange as i learned in Religious Studies GCSE that Buddhist monks are not allowed any possessions apart from a bowl to beg for food and their robes. However here in Thailand they have a custom that every Buddhist (pretty much every Thai person) has to be a monk for one week at some point in their life. So those monks could really be the CEO of Thai Airways for all i know. No wonder when I offered one of the smokers 20 baht after Carly took a pic of me sitting with him he was reluctant to accept it and had a big grin on his face.

Next was the Muay Thai show. Most of you know I have done a bit of Thai boxing at uni and so I wanted to see the authentic stuff in Thailand. The tickets were pretty expensive compared to everything else there (25pounds) but it was worth it. Carly actually enjoyed it too. Some of the fights were really intense and we saw a few head kicks, jumping knees and sneaky elbows too. The atmosphere there was something else.

Most of the Thai people sit up high in the stands where they place bets on the fights so they get really into it, cheering their favourites on. Every time someone takes a knee in the ribs they all shout "knee" in unison. We had seats at ringside, we could have sat in the front row but I thought the second would b best as it is out of range of the sweat and blood that occasionally sprays from the ring... just kidding, only one fighter cut his opponent with a cheeky elbow to the forehead, there was a lot of sweat flying around though, i can't imagine how tough it must be to fight in that heat.

Now for the shopping, sorry i know this is getting really long but almost there I think. The basic principle of Thai shopping is to only pay half what they initially tell u, this also goes for taking rides in tuk-tuks (the small 3-wheeled motorbike taxis that whizz around Bangkok making an awful racket).

To lower the price u have to barter, so obviously u start really low and wait for them to lower the price until u r happy with it.

This is necessary because Thais assume all foreigners are rich and raise their prices accordingly. One time in a street market we tried a real low price to see if it would work, the woman thought about it then came out with the immortal line "that price happy you. Ten baht more: happy you happy me."

After that we had to give her the extra 10 hehe. I also managed to buy a fitted suit, with 3 fitted shirts and a tie, all good quality stuff, for around about 140 pounds. We had the first fitting the day before leaving Bangkok and we will go back for another after our 2 weeks in Vietnam before we visit the Thai island of Ko Chang.

Bangkok is as the Chilean told me back in Moscow: "veery inteeresting uh." We went on a boat tour and the driver called from the back "hey you, look floating market." We follow his pointing finger and see two tiny canoes with a gap-toothed, ancient Thai man and a wrinkly-as-hell Thai woman inside them with bunches of bananas, bottled beer and cans of coke. We rode on the SkyTrain a lot, the answer to Bangkok's traffic problems, a train track raised above the roads on big concrete stilts. Thankfully it has air-conditioning so gives a welcome break from the humidity. Late at night there are an alarming number of "ladyboys" on there though...

Take it easy

Adam

Hey from Singapore!(Adam): Wed 01/11/2006 8:57 AM

Hey everyone,

This one won't be so long i don't think, mainly because we spent 5 days on the beach on the Thai island of Ko Chang and didn't really do a whole lot. We flew back to Bangkok from Saigon and spent a night there as we had to go and see the tailor making our suits for another fitting. Next day we set out for Ko Chang. It took the entire day to get there, 5 hours on the coach, an hour on a pickup truck, an hour on the ferry and then another hour on a pickup the other side. Finally we reached the island just after dark and had to find somewhere to stay. We stopped at the most popular beach which is luckily also the closest to the ferry and has the most hotels. First night we stayed in a complete dive and first thing in the morning we went looking for somewhere better. We managed to get a great room at the Sabay Beach Resort, right on the beach.

Spent most of the week sunbathing and swimming in the crystal clear water. As it was just at the end of the rainy season it rained a bit each day but on the plus side it meant the beach was nice and quiet with no big crowds. Ko Chang is relatively undeveloped, there is one long road down the west side of the island and all the beach resorts are along there. There is a row of hotels and beach bungalows right on the beach, then there's the road, then another row of hotels, shops etc and behind that the rest of the island is untouched rainforest. Unfortunately there are plans to extend the road around the entire island and build resorts all the way round so in a few years time it will be like Bangkok. I had a fantastic time, just what I needed after the craziness of Saigon. I went swimming in the sea every day and finally got a decent tan.

The only thing we did on Ko Chang was the elephant trek. As using elephants for logging has recently become illegal in Thailand the government were stuck with all these old elephants they had to make redundant. Their solution was to send them all off to the islands and charge tourists money to take rides on them. Sounds pretty cruel but honestly it was great fun, and besides if I was an elephant I'd rather carry a couple of tourists around a few times a day than lug trees around all day long. Plus at the end u can buy bananas and feed the elephants which I'm sure they don't mind. Anyway so u walk upstairs onto a wooden platform and step onto the elephants back where there is a bench-type harness thing. The elephant keeper sits on the neck and tells it which way to go. the ride is pretty bumpy but u soon get used to it as the elephant takes u into the jungle.

After about half an hour we got to this big clearing at which point the 'driver' asks for our camera then jumps off the front! At first i thought he was gonna leg it with the camera and leave us stranded on top of the elephant but his true purpose soon became clear: he told me to climb down to where he was sitting on the elephant's neck and he took some photos, nice of him. So I got to sit in the driver's seat all the way back to the elephant camp.

Make no mistake though, I was sitting there but I had no control whatsoever. The elephant was quite happily going about his business eating grass and ignoring his little friend who was calling out commands to him from down on the ground. At one point he walked under a tree which was not so good for me coz i got a face full of branches. Overall it was a great experience even though when I climbed down my track bottoms were soaked in sweat from behind the elephant's ears, lovely. We did the usual thing and bought some bananas to feed them before getting back in the pickup truck and going back to lie around on the beach for the rest of the day.

It somehow took us even longer to get back to Bangkok from Ko Chang. We had the final fitting of the suits and had to buy another bag for me to carry them in. We went to the cinema a few times so I can tell u do not go to see the remake of The Wicker Man with Nicholas Cage, it was awful. Before leaving Bangkok for the last time I had to get a traditional Thai massage. It was fantastic although slightly painful in places. The masseuse used some interesting techniques involving her elbows and knees. She also walked along my back, all I can say is it's lucky Thai people are mostly quite small!

The next installment! (sorry about the length!) (Carly) Wed 01/11/2006 9:25 AM

Hi everyone!

Thailand (.....continued from Vietnam page.....)

We spent a night in Bangkok before traveling to Ko Chang. It took us a whole day to get there but it was definitely worth it! The island was beautiful, with white sand and a clear blue sea. We spent the first night in a cheap brick bungalow because it was dark when we started looking for somewhere and it was annoying dragging our bags about. It was en suite but the toilet was Thai-style with a hose instead of an integrated flush.. Adam was not at all impressed by this! You could not put any paper in the toilet and I have to admit it wasn't very pleasant! The next day we got up early and went in search of somewhere nicer! We soon found Sabay Bar which had air con, a TV, a fridge and most importantly a flushing loo! We were staying about 10 steps from the beach and so Adam spent a lot of time sun bathing and swimming! I was careful not to get burnt and so was inside for quite a lot of the day watching films! I don't normally like the sea that much but this sea was nice to swim in. The centre of Ko Chang is a jungle but we did not explore it because this was our five days of relaxation!

The highlight of the week has to be our elephant ride! We were picked up by a jeep and taken to the elephant village. They had lots of elephants and some were stood under tall shelters munching on large green leaves. We had to climb up a ladder onto a tall platform to get up onto the elephant. We were sat on a seat with bars around the back and sides which was strapped on the elephant with ropes under its tummy. Our elephant was male with his two tusks intact. Our guide climbed onto the elephant's neck and sat with his feet behind the elephants ears or dangling down over the front of its head. When we set off I was surprised how bumpy the ride was. At first I was holding onto the side of the seat for dear life and it wasn't exactly a comfortable way to travel. I soon got the hang of it though and we started trying to take pictures so you could see us on the elephant. My best effort was one of the elephants rear with our two shadows on it! Our trek took us through the jungle and we noticed that the elephant was eating pretty constantly the whole way! Not that we could blame the poor thing, it cant be easy carting 3 or 4 people around on your back all day. After a while we came to a more open part of the jungle and our guide got Adam to sit up front while he slid off and took some pictures for us. Adam was not as skilled as the guide and so the elephant decided to walk into a few trees! It proved that "driving" an elephant is much harder than it looks. Adam said he had no control. On the way back Adam stayed up front and he said it looked much more glamorous than it was as his legs got covered with sweat from behind the elephants ears! Back at the village I bought some bananas and we fed a couple of very greedy elephants. They took the banana off us with their trunks, stuffed it in their mouths and had their trunks back to our hands in the blink of an eye

In took us even longer to get back to Bangkok. We left at 11am, took a jeep then a ferry then another jeep then a bus then a taxi and got to Ashar Guesthouse after 9pm! As we hadn't done anything all day we decided to go the cinema and were just in time to catch the last showing of Crank. The film was very entertaining if a little far fetched and it really improved a boring day of traveling! On our last day in Thailand we picked up our suits, went to the cinema again (Wickerman this time not so good) and Adam got a Thai Massage. He said it was so good that he wished he'd had one every day we'd spent in Thailand and I think he is considering returning to find a Thai masseuse for a wife!

.(.....continued on Singapore page.....)

Love Carly xxx